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His countenance took on an air of innocence. “Simply for protection. And to fight…when needed.”
“Fight?”
“Do you not fear the dragons? They persecute us incessantly. We hovel in forests and swamps for fear that they may find us and snuff us out.”
In Earth’s sordid history, so-called witches had been persecuted, too. Burned alive, drowned, tortured. Nowadays, everyone knew that era to be a blight in human history. Rampant fanaticism gone unchecked. Was the same thing happening here, with real witches? Then who was the real threat? Witches…or The Destroyer?
Considering she still felt like an object of prey, she thought she knew the answer.
Bravado, Jessie. Keep it up.Maybe she could still bluff her way out of here.
“I’ll need time to decide. How about I meet you back here in a few days?”
His lips curled into a haughty smirk, and his irises faded to white. She felt a charge in the air. She’d never needed to use her blade for defense, but she wouldn’t hesitate to—
Suddenly, her Ka-Bar was ripped from its sheath and sent airborne, nicking her forearm before flying toward the man on the branch. He reached out and grabbed the hilt with a shuddering speed.
Holy shit!
He lifted it for a curious examination, managing to look bored…after using the fucking Jedi Force to snatch her knife. “Interesting piece of equipment. Fine blacksmithing.”
Her entire body went tense. “Give it back.”
He tested the blade with his thumb. “This means a lot to you. It is a dear talisman.”
“Yes. It belonged to my father.”
He turned the blade over in his hand, transfixed by the small drop of her blood that decorated the tip. To her astonishment, his tongue swiped out to lick it off.Ugh!“But that is not the bloodline of your power. It’s an ancient bloodline, thought to have been extinct. A primordial breed of witches from a bygone era. Amazing. From where do you hail?” There was something even more proprietary behind his eyes now.
“Oh, here and there.”
“Hmm.” He paused for a moment, assessing her. Then he extended his hand, laying his palm flat so that the hilt of her blade balanced perfectly there. Then the blade rose several inches as though on its own and hovering for a moment before gently coasting down toward her, hilt first. She snatched it and slipped it into its sheath once more.
Had that really just happened? She glanced back up at him, trying not to sound too eager. “You could teach me to do that?” What if he really did just want to teach her? Without something in return?Yeah, right.
That smirk returned. “You cannot manage even that simple spell? How strange. Are you completely unschooled, then?”
She pursed her lips. Had she just revealed her cards?
“Of course I could guide you, little one,” he said, but she sensed a condition.“Ifyou were to pledge yourself to me.”
“And what would that mean, exactly?”
He stared at her for a moment. She got the impression her ignorance was more surprising to him than her inability to perform magic. “You would join my coven and become one of my disciples.”
“Live with you? In a swamp?”
His gaze narrowed. “You prefer the dragon’s dungeon?”
Though Orik had threatened to send her to the dungeon, he hadn’t. In fact, her accommodations were five-star. Would that change when he found out she’d escaped?
She heard the distant roll of thunder. The wind changed direction, and a slight chill entered the breeze.
The man briefly glanced at the sky, then back at her. “We live well, I assure you.”
She wasn’t about to agree to join up with some alien race of magical beings on a whim. And there was something about this guy, something she couldn’t pinpoint, that she simply didn’t trust. Perhaps it was the sugarycome-with-me-into-the-forest-little-girlvibe he was putting out.
“You say you escaped the castle?” He suddenly changed the subject. “Did you happen to meet a white-haired witch while you were incarcerated.”
